A loud bang, echoing through the room, woke me from my thoughts. I quickly raised my head to find the source of the noise and stopped. Next to the table stood a tall woman in guard armor. She looked directly at me, judged me, and thought about my price as a slave.

"I hate to wake you, but I have a pretty busy day today," the woman said. "Korra Grey? I suppose?"

"Yes," I nodded.

What? What did she say? I didn't sleep! I was just thinking, didn't I? Hmm…. Maybe I really fell asleep. After all, I was up all night. But how could I be so careless like that? I couldn't afford that.

The woman saw that she had my attention, so she sat down at the table, where she unfolded the papers she had brought with her.

"Please sit down," she said, pointing at the chair across the table.

I frowned. "Don't you have a stool?"

"I'm sorry we don't, turn the chair around," she said as she read the notes.

What did she mean? Turning the chair around, like sitting on it the other way round? It was a solution, but...yes, I'll do it, ma'am. Her gaze told me she didn't like my hesitation. Apparently, I was disrupting her schedule today. I turned my chair over and sat on it with its backrest in front of me.

Now I didn't have a problem with the wings and tail. But it wasn't comfortable either. Because of the backrest, I had to sit with my legs spread. I didn't mind. My problem wasn't with that, but with the fact that I was commando under my improvised skirt.

"Korra Grey, Slave level 92, former master Frederic Dungreen, in slavery for over a year," she read aloud from the notes. "Tell me, what kind of race are you?"

"Who are you?" I asked instead of answering.

I don't know where it came from. I was surprised that I found the courage to ask her like that.

"Castiana's City Guardsmen Captain Sanysia Rayden, so what are you?" She asked again after introducing herself.

I closed my eyes for a moment, then looked at her. "Would you believe I'm human?"

"I'd love to hear how one can have ears like you…"

So I started telling her my story and told her everything, including not being from Eleaden. I started telling my story from the beginning, how Fae kidnapped me, the experiments, the mutations, my death, the meeting with Mr. Scoresby, and finally, I described the way to Castiana.

Captain listened to me all the time and just nodded sometimes. At first, I didn't understand why I was telling her all this. I definitely didn't want to tell anyone I was from Earth. In the end, I came to the conclusion that there must be magic in work here or some skill that calmed me down and forced me to tell the truth. However, when I looked at Captain Rayden, I did not see that her class had anything to do with the interrogation.

[Warrior: lvl ??]

It wasn't the first time I saw someone with question marks instead of a level. When I was forced to choose the Slave class, my level was 1. I saw all the other slaves with question marks. Mostly one, only a couple with two. It told me one thing, this woman was powerful.

But it didn't change the fact that I told her everything without wanting to. Now I could only wait for her reaction. The silence that came after I finished my story was nerve-racking.

"How did you get across the border?" She asked.

Was that her first question? I was shocked.

"Eh, I don't remember," I said, scratching my neck. "I think I was still dead. As I said, I woke up on the riverbank, just a few hours walk from the bridge over the river."

"I see," she nodded. "This is a potential threat."

"Really?" I wondered.

"Well, it's not very realistic for the enemy to send an entire army of corpses down the river, but for an spy to cross the border this way could be possible," Captain Rayden said. "Well, what is Dungreen's profession, his level?"

"I don't know. He forbade me to look with one of the first orders I received from him," I told her.

He had a whole list of orders ready when I appeared in the cellar. It was just routine for him, just another test subject.

The captain nodded. "I thought so. What about his companions? Someone you saw?"

"If he was in contact with anyone, it wasn't in the cellar," I said

Other questions followed, but unfortunately, I was not able to answer most of them. Despite being locked up in the cellar with other slaves for months and in the presence of that madman, I didn't know much. He was a proper lunatic, but he wasn't stupid. The other people he dragged into the dungeon were from all corners of Arda. All the newcomers were drugged and had no idea in which city they were. The only information I had was the name of the river to which the sewers led. The cellar couldn't be far from here because the river could be heard from the sewers.

"Anything else?" The captain asked me again. "Please try to remember, even a small thing will suffice."

It was hard for me to remember the place of my suffering, but I tried.

"Hmm… I saw a letter on his desk once," I told her, trying to remember more. "I don't know what was in it or who it was from, but I remember the wax seal that was on it."

Captain Rayden immediately handed me a piece of paper and a pencil. "Please draw it for me."

I tried my best. It's incredible how one atrophies when you're not using something. My wrist was stiff, and my hand wasn't listening to my commands as I thought it would. Fortunately, the seal was not so complicated. Two crossed roses. Captain Tayden took my creation from me, inspected it, and placed it among the other notes.

"The last thing we have left is'," she said, placing the device I was familiar with on the table. "Your identification. This is the Identification Station. It's an invasion of privacy, but if you want to get an ID card, you have to put your hands on it."

"Why isn't the tablet enough?" I asked her.

"Because it's too weak, some abilities can fool it, and I won't let a threat into my city," Rayden said in a casual tone.

"I'm just asking," I said quickly. "That bastard used the same magic tool, I mean the station."

Captain Rayden immediately leaned toward me. "Interesting because it is not a commonly available tool. What else did he use?"

So instead of identifying, I started naming her magical tools that I saw in the cellar. I also added the non-magical ones, which I found interesting.

"Please," the captain pointed to the station as I listed everything I could think of.

I would compare the Identification Station to the size of a computer keyboard. The same blackboard was covered with runes as a Tablet, but two places were marked on it for hands and a crystal embedded in the middle.

I took a deep breath and put both hands on the station. The runes lit up, and the status screen appeared between the two of us.

Name: Korra Grey

Race: Human

Gender: Female

Age: 29

Class: Slave

Level: 92

Constitution: 39

Strength: 21

Endurance: 25

Dexterity: 23

Intelligence: 11

Wisdom: 10

Class skills:

Indomitable Will: lvl 108

Faint Presence: lvl 29

Lover of Work: lvl 8

Master's Toy: lvl 72

Silent Suffering: lvl 91

Odorless Odor: lvl 88

General skills:

Eleaden Standard Language: lvl 9

Flight: lvl 1

Nerve Poison: lvl 6

Night Vision: lvl 18

Good Hearing: lvl 23

Unnatural Regeneration: lvl 36

Lioness Strength: lvl 4

Poison Resistance: lvl 3

So that was it, my status in all its glory. According to the system, still human. A woman in her late twenties who became a slave here. My stats were quite focused on the constitution, or rather my health, vitality. This was Dungreen's job. He told me how to spend every point I earned.

My initial stats were not impressive at all. The highest-rated was the constitution and intelligence, both stats with 8 points. The worst was the strength, rated by only four points. Yeah, I had self-defense lessons, but I wasn't a very athletic person. It hardly mattered now.

My stats were what they were, and I couldn't change that.

Six class skills spoke for themselves. It was a combination of what the madman demanded of me. Not to collapse, not to be seen, a little strength, to listen to him, to be quiet and not to stink. Really nice list.

Everyone could acquire general skills, and there were eight of them. The first one I got was Eleaden Standart Language. I got it when he put a slave collar on me. Thanks to that, I understood everyone and was able to speak the local language. The rest of the skills were the result of experiments and mutations on my body. Flight, for example, was a completely useless skill. Even though I had wings, I couldn't fly and therefore, couldn't train this skill.

As I said, I had a lot of skills that I wanted to change.

"This is a real mess," Captain Rayden commented on my status.

"…" I could do nothing but nod quietly. She was right.

"Well, that's enough for me. I don't see a problem in giving you an ID," said Rayden, indicating that I could take my hands off.

I nodded and removed my hands from the Identification Station. The status screen disappeared, the runes stopped shining, and the captain cleaned up the station. She made a few more notes before packing everything on the table. She got up from the table so suddenly that it scared me.

"Follow me,"

I obeyed her, but keeping up with her was difficult. She was incredibly fast, even though she was only walking. Her target was Travis, her assistant I had already met.

"Travis, give her an ID. She's okay, standard procedure," she told him, handing him some form.

"Yes, ma'am," the man said, saluting.

Captain Rayden looked at me and smiled for the first time. "Miss Grey, welcome to Castiana."